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Stoichiometric

Stoichiometric Calculations
Calculations

Hsin Chu
Professor
Dept. of Environmental Engineering
National Cheng Kung University

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1. Applications of the Combustion
Equation
(1) Stoichiometric proportions for finding
the correct air supply rate for a fuel
(2) Composition of the combustion products
is useful during the design, commissioning
and routine maintenance of a boiler inst
allation
On-site measurements of flue gas composition
and temperature are used as a basis for calcul
ating the efficiency of the boiler at routine m
aintenance intervals.

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2. Combustion Air Requirements: Gaseous
Fuels
Calculating the air required for gaseous fuels
combustion is most convenient to work on a vo
lumetric basis.
The stoichiometric combustion reaction of me
thane is :
CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H2O
which shows that each volume (normally 1 m3)
of methane requires 2 volumes of oxygen to c
omplete its combustion.

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If we ignore the components which are
present in the parts per million range, air
consists of about 0.9% by volume argon,
78.1% nitrogen and 20.9% oxygen (ignoring
water vapor). Carbon dioxide is present at
0.038%.
For the purposes of combustion calculations
the composition of air is approximated as a
simple mixture of oxygen and nitrogen:
oxygen 21%
nitrogen 79%

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The complete relationship for stoichiometric combust
ion:

CH4 + 2O2 + 7.52N2 CO2 + 2H2O +7.52N2


as the volume of nitrogen will be 27921=7.52.
A very small amount of nitrogen is oxidized but the r
esulting oxides of nitrogen (NOX) are not formed in s
ufficient quantities to concern us here.
However, they are highly significant in terms of air p
ollution.

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It can be seen that the complete combustion
of one volume of methane will require (2+7.52
=9.52) volumes of air, so the stoichiometric ai
r-to-fuel (A/F) ratio for methane is 9.52.
In practice it is impossible to obtain complete
combustion under stoichiometric conditions. I
ncomplete combustion is a waste of energy an
d it leads to the formation of carbon monoxid
e, an extremely toxic gas, in the products.

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Excess air is expressed as a percentage inc
rease over the stoichiometric requirement
and is defined by:
actual A / F ratio - stoichiometric A / F ratio
100%
stoichiometric A / F ratio

Excess air will always reduce the efficiency


of a combustion system.

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It is sometimes convenient to use term exce
ss air ratio, defined as:
actual A / F ratio
stoichiometric A / F ratio
Where sub-stoichiometric (fuel-rich) air-to-
fuel ratios may be encountered, for instance
, in the primary combustion zone of a low-N
OX burner, the equivalence ratio is often quo
ted. This is given by:
stoichiometric A / F ratio
actual A / F ratio
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3. Flue Gas Composition-Gaseous
Fuels
The composition of the stoichiometric combus
tion products of methane is:
1 volume CO2
7.52 volumes N2
2 volumes H2O
Given a total product volume, per volume of fu
el burned, of 10.52 if water is in the vapor ph
ase, or 8.52 if the water is condensed to a liq
uid.
The two cases are usually abbreviated to wet
and dry.

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The proportion of carbon dioxide in this mixture is
therefore
1
100% = 9.51% wet and
10.52
1
100% = 11.74% dry
8.52

The instruments used to measure the composition of


flue gases remove water vapor from the mixture and
hence give a dry reading, so the dry flue gas
composition is usually of greater usefulness.

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Considering the combustion of methane with 20% exc
ess air, the excess air (0.29.52) of 1.9 volumes will a
ppear in the flue gases as (0.211.9)=0.4 volumes of o
xygen and (1.9-0.4)=1.5 volumes of nitrogen.
The complete composition will be:
constituent vol/vol methane
CO2 1
O2 0.4
N2 9.02
H2 O 2
giving a total product volume of 12.42 (wet) or 10.42
(dry).

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The resulting composition of the flue ga
ses, expressed as percentage by volume,
is:
Constituent % vol (dry) % vol (wet)
CO2 9.6 8.1
O2 3.8 3.2
N2 86.6 72.6
H2O 16.1

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Example 1:
A gas consists of 70% propane (C3H8) and 30% butane
(C4H10) by volume. Find:
(a) The stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio and
(b) The percentage excess air present if a dry analy
sis of the combustion products shows 9% CO2 (assum
e complete combustion).
Solution:
The combustion reactions for propane and butane are:
C3 H 8 + 5 O2 + 18.8 N 2 3 CO2 + 4 H 2O + 18.8 N 2
C4 H10 + 6.5 O2 + 24.5 N 2 4 CO2 + 5 H 2O + 24.5 N 2

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(a) Stoichiometric Air Requirement
On the basis of 1 volume of the fuel gas,
the propane content requires
0.7 (5 + 18.8) = 16.7 vols air
and the butane requires
0.3 (6.5 + 24.5) = 6.3 vols air
Hence the stoichiometric air-to-fuel rat
io is 23:1.

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(b) Excess Air
The combustion products (dry) will contain
(0.7 3) + (0.3 4) = 3.3 vols CO2
(0.7 18.8) + (0.3 24.5) = 20.5 vols N 2
plus volumes excess air, giving a total volume of products of (23
.8 + ).
Given that the measured CO2 in the products is 9%, we can write:
9 3.3
=
100 (23.8 + u )

hence = 12.87 vols


The stoichiometric air requirement is 23 vols so the percentage excess
air is: 12.87
100% = 55.9%
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4. Combustion Air Requirements-Solid
and Liquid Fuels
The way in which the combustion equation is used
reflects the available information on the analysis of
the solid or liquid fuels.
This takes the form of an element-by-element
analysis (referred to as an ultimate analysis) which
gives the percentage by mass of each element
present in the fuel.
An example of an ultimate analysis of a liquid fuel
(oil) might be :
Component % by mass
Carbon (C) 86
Hydrogen(H2) 14

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Each constituent is considered separately via its own
combustion equation.
For the carbon:
C + O2 CO2
12kg 32kg 44kg
or for 1 kg of fuel
32 44
0.86 + 0.86 0.86 (kg)
12 12
So each kg of oil requires 2.29 kg oxygen for
combustion of its carbon and produces 3.15 kg CO2 as
product.

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Similarly
H2 + O2 H2O
2kg 16kg 18kg
or per kg of fuel
16 18
0.14 + 0.14 0.14 (kg)
2 2
In order to burn the hydrogen content of the
oil 1.12 kg oxygen are needed and 1.26 kg
water is formed.

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The total oxygen requirement is thus (2.29 + 1.12) or
3.41 kg.
A given quantity of air consists of 21% by volume of o
xygen.
We can simply transform to a mass basis thus:
Component vol fraction(vf) vf MW Mass fraction
Oxygen 0.21 6.72 6.72
= 0.233
28.84

Nitrogen 0.79 22.12 22.12


= 0.767
28.84 28.84

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We can now establish that 3.41 kg oxygen, whi
ch is the stoichiometric requirement, will be a
ssociated with:
0.767
3.41 = 11.23 kg nitrogen
0.233

The stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio is thus 3.


41 + 11.23 = 14.6 : 1

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5. Combustion Products-Solid and Liquid
Fuels
The stoichiometric combustion products from
combustion of the oil are:
CO2 3.15 kg
H2O 1.26 kg
N2 11.23 kg
The combustion products would normally be n
eeded as a volume percentage, so the reverse
operation to that which was performed for air
above is required.

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Hence if we require a dry volume percentage o
f the above products the following tabular pro
cedure is convenient:
Component Mass/kg fuel kmoles/kg fuel mole fraction
CO2 3.15 3.15
= 0.0716 0.151
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11.23
N2 11.23 28
= 0.4011
0.849
0.4727

The stoichiometric combustion products are t


hus 15.1% CO2 and 84.9% N2.

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Solid fuels, and many liquid fuels, contain com
pounds of sulfur. For the purposes of stoichio
metric calculations this is assumed to burn to
sulfur dioxide:
S + O2 SO2
In reality a mixture of sulfur dioxide and sulf
ur trioxide (SO3) is produced, but it is conven
tional to assume combustion to SO2 when calc
ulating air requirements.

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Solid fuels and some oils produce ash when they burn.
The percentage of ash in the fuel is part of the
ultimate analysis and, as far as we are concerned at
the moment, ash is simply treated as a totally inert
substance.
Many solid fuels contain small amounts of oxygen and
nitrogen. The oxygen present in the fuel is
considered to be available for burning the carbon,
hydrogen and sulfur present.
The nitrogen in the fuel is taken to appear as gaseous
nitrogen in the combustion products.

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Example 2: Combustion Calculation for a Coal
A coal has the following ultimate analysis:
% by mass
Carbon 90
Hydrogen 3
Oxygen 2.5
Nitrogen 1
Sulfur 0.5
Ash 3
Calculate:
(a) the volumetric air supply rate required if 500 kg/h of coal
is to be burned at 20% excess air and
(b) the resulting %CO2 (dry) by volume in the combustion
products.

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Solution:
Lay out the calculation on a tabular basis using 1 kg coal:
Mass (per kg) O2 Required Products
Carbon 0.9 32
0.9 = 2.4
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0.9 = 3.3
12 12
Hydrogen 0.03 16
0.03 = 0.24
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0.03 = 0.27
2 2
Sulfur 0.005 32
0.005 = 0.005 64
0.005 = 0.01
32 32
Oxygen 0.025 -0.025 -
Nitrogen 0.01 - 0.01
Ash 0.03 - -

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(a) Oxygen required to burn 1 kg coal = 2.4 +
0.24 + 0.005 - 0.025 = 2.62 kg.
2.62
Air required = 0.233 = 11.25 kg
Actual air supplied = 11.25 1.2 = 13.5 kg
Assuming a density for air of 1.2 kg/m3,
the flow rate will be:
500
13.5 = 1.56 m /s
3

1.2 3600

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(b) To get the %CO2 in the combustion products we
need to know the amounts of oxygen and nitrogen
in the flue gases.
Air supplied = 13.5 kg per kg coal, of which
oxygen is
13.5 0.233 = 3.14 kg, and nitrogen
13.5 3.14 = 10.36 kg.
The combustion products will thus contain:
3.14 2.62 = 0.52 kg O2 and
10.36 + 0.01 = 10.37 kg N2.

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A second tabular procedure can now be used for the volumetric c
omposition of the flue gases:
Product Mass/kg coal Mol. Wt. kmoles/kg coal %volume
CO2 3.3 44 0.075=(3.3/44) 16.25=(0.075/0.461
4)
SO2 0.01 64 0.000156 0.03
O2 0.52 32 0.0162
0.37 3.51
N2 10.37 28 0.4614 80.20

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6. Practical Significance of the Flue Gas
Composition
It is comparatively easy to make on-site measurement
s of the dry volumetric concentration of either carbo
n dioxide or oxygen in the flue gases.
Either of these measurements can be used to calculat
e the air-to-fuel ratio (or excess air) if the compositi
on of the fuel is known and the combustion of the fue
l is complete.
The volume percentage of oxygen or carbon dioxide in
the flue gas will be influenced by the level of excess
air and also by the carbon:hydrogen ratio present in t
he fuel.

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If pure carbon is burnt, the only combustion product is car
bon dioxide, so each molecule of oxygen in the combustion
air becomes a molecule of carbon dioxide in the flue gas.
This means that the stoichiometric combustion of carbon
will produce 21% by volume CO2.
If we consider for the moment that hydrocarbon fuels con
sist only of carbon and hydrogen, as the carbon:hydrogen r
atio of the fuel decreases the stoichiometric air-to-fuel r
atio will increase.
This is because 1 kg carbon requires 32/12=2.67 kg of oxy
gen for complete combustion but 1 kg hydrogen requires 8
kg oxygen.

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The percentage CO2 in the flue gases will fall as the c
arbon:hydrogen ratio in the fuel decreases as
(1) less carbon dioxide will be produced per kilogram
of fuel and
(2) the increased air requirement means that the
carbon dioxide produced will be diluted by the
extra nitrogen in the flue gas.
This effect is illustrated in Table 2.1 (next slide).
The carbon:hydrogen ratio in fuels lie between the lim
its of 75:25 (methane) to around 95:5 (
high carbon coals).

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Table 2.1 Carbon dioxide concentraton
in flue gases

C : H (by mass) Satoichiometric %CO2


100 0 21.00
95 5 18.67
90 10 16.62
85 15 14.81
80 20 13.19
75 25 11.73
70 30 10.42
65 35 9.23
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Next slide (Fig. 2.1)
There is a unique relationship between
the composition of the flue gas and the
excess air for any given fuel.

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Constituent % by vol.
Next Slide (Fig. 2.2)
A plot of the percentage CO2 in the flue
gases over a range of values of excess
air for C:H ratios ranging from 75:25 to
95:5.
The curves for fuels with higher C:H
ratios lie above those for fuels with a
lower value of this ratio.

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Next Slide (Fig. 2.3)
The relationship between the
percentage oxygen in the flue gas and
the excess air is very similar for a wide
range of fuels.
This is different from the CO2 curves.

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Take the combustion of two extreme cases: one kmole of carbo
n and one kmole of methane. In each case we will consider 100% e
xcess air.
The combustion of carbon under these conditions is described by:
C+ 2 O2 + 7.52 N2 CO2 + O2 + 7.52 N2
The percentage of oxygen in the flue gas is thus:
[1/(1+1+7.52)]100%=10.5%
The corresponding equation for methane is
CH4 + 4 O2 + 15.05 N2 CO2 +2 H2O +2 O2 +15.05 N2
giving a percentage oxygen of
[2/(1+2+15.05)]100%=11%

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7. Sub-stoichiometric Combustion
There are circumstances in which localized fuel-rich combustion
can take place, such as where combustion of the fuel is a two-st
age process with secondary air added downstream of the primar
y combustion zone.
The mechanism of combustion of a fuel with less than the stoich
iometric air requirement consists of the following sequence of e
vents:
(1) The available oxygen firstly burns all the hydrogen in the
fuel to water vapor.
(2) All the carbon in the fuel is then burned to carbon mono
xide.
(3) The remaining oxygen is consumed by burning carbon mono
xide to carbon dioxide.

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Next slide (Fig. 2.4)
It can be seen that as the air supply fall
s below the stoichiometric requirement
the percentage of carbon monoxide in t
he flue gas increases very quickly.

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Air fuel ratio
Figure 2.4 Sub-stiochiometric combustion of natural gas
Example 3: Combustion of a Fuel under Sub-Stoichiom
etric Conditions
Estimate the wet and dry flue gas composition if prop
ane is burned with 95% of the stiochiometric air requ
irement.
Solution:
the stoichiometric reaction for this fuel is
C3H8 + 5 O2 3 CO2 + 4H2O
On a volumetric basis we have (5 0.95)=4.75 volume
s of O2 available. This means that the accompanying ni
trogen is 17.87 volumes.

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Firstly all the hydrogen in the fuel is burned
to water.
This will produce 4 volumes of water vapor
and consume 2 volumes of oxygen, leaving 2.75
volumes for further combustion of the carbon
in the fuel.
We assume that all the carbon initially burns
to carbon monoxide and then the remaining
oxygen is used in burning the carbon monoxide
to carbon dioxide.

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Burning the carbon to CO will produce 3 volumes of
CO and use up 1.5 volumes of oxygen, leaving (2.75-
1.5)=1.25 volumes of oxygen for further combustion.
Next reaction is
CO + O2 CO2
So 1.25 volumes oxygen can burn 2.5 volumes of
carbon monoxide, producing 2.5 volumes of carbon
dioxide.
The remaining carbon monoxide is therefore
(3-2.5)=0.5 volume.

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The products of combustion are thus:
N2 17.87 volumes
CO 0.5
CO2 2.5
H 2O 4.0
Total 24.87
Giving the percentage compositions:
Wet(%) Dry(%)
N2 71.9 85.6
CO 2.0 2.4
CO2 10.0 12.0
H 2O 16.1 -

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